“The exclusive front-page report which appeared in the Hindustan Times today (Mumbai and Bhopal editions) linking Jamaat-e-Islami Hind with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is misleading, baseless and defamatory in nature, said Secretary-General Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Nusrat Ali in a statement on April 16.
“It is a deliberate effort to tarnish the image of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind which has a remarkable service record of 60 years serving the people of India in the field of Godliness, education, human rights, social service, etc. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is striving to establish a just and peaceful society,” the JIH leader added.
The methodology adopted by Jamaat, as mentioned in its constitution, states, “In all its actions Jamaat shall be bound by moral limits and shall never adopt such means or ways which are against truth and honesty or through which may come about communal hatred, class struggle and fasaad fil arz, (social chaos, discord, anarchy, corruption and mischief in land), Jamaat shall adopt constructive and peaceful methods; that is, it shall reform the mental outlook, character and conduct through propagation (of Islam), instruction and dissemination of Islamic ideas, and thus shall train public opinion in order to bring about the desired righteous revolution in the social life of the country.”
Mr Ali further said that there is no question of disowning SIMI as stated in the report, because SIMI had never been a wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. “It was an entirely different organisation, which had no connection with us.” The JIH leader categorically denied that his organisation had ever called any meeting of SIMI associates, as mischievously stated in the report.